GoPetition - Terms of Use

Definitions:

The services that GoPetition provides to you are subject to the following Terms of Use ("TOU").

"User" refers to any individual who loads any material to or from the GoPetition server.

"Member" means any person who authors a petition on the GoPetition site or any person who joins the GoPetition community by opening an account.

"Moderate", "moderated content", "moderation" refers to a process by GoPetition where content is reviewed on a sampling basis or due to comments or feedback by 3rd parties. GoPetition uses a part active, part passive moderation regime. Due to the massive volume of content posted to GoPetition, not all content can be reviewed actively. GoPetition does not warrant that any specific petition(s) has been actively moderated or reviewed.

TOU:

(1). User/Member Agreement: In consideration of being allowed to use the website facilities provided by GoPetition, Users/Members agrees that Users/Members will not:

A. Use petition or forum facilities for any purpose in violation of local, state or national laws of any country;

B. Post material that is copyrighted, unless User/Member owns them or has the permission of the copyright owner to post it;

C. Post material that reveals trade secrets, unless User/Member owns them or has the permission of the owner of the trade secrets to post it;

D. Post material that infringes on any other intellectual property rights of others or on the privacy or publicity rights of others;

E. Post material that could be construed by a reasonable person as threatening, obscene, defamatory, unreasonable, hurtful, harassing, or hateful to another User/Member or any other person or entity;

F. Post advertisements or solicitations of business;

G. Post chain letters or pyramid schemes;

H. Impersonate another person.

I. Submit false User/Member information when creating or signing a petition. GoPetition reserves the right to edit, change or remove petitions or signatures or User information when untruthful and inaccurate User/Member information is supplied. This includes but is not limited to Name, Address, City, State, postal code and e-mail address. Members may use alias names and nicknames to protect identity as long as such name(s) do not conflict with this clause and these terms of service. GoPetition reserves the right to keep a record of each member's name and email address in our data base.

J. Signature Management and Signature Edits. Members must not edit a signature in any way that compromises the intent of the signer. Petition authors agree to edit signatures only to remedy a spelling or grammatical error, remove an obscenity or remove spam, or delete illegal material.

K. Members must use signature lists (including email addresses) responsibly and legally. Members undertake not to spam their signature list.

L. Will not hold GoPetition responsible for the consequences of any search engine access to public signature list details.

M. Upload a petition about any issue that is currently before the courts, or will soon be before the courts, or use a petition as an instrument to engage in pre-litigation or litigation positioning. Petitions must not discuss evidence before the courts or show contempt of any court in any jurisdiction. A petition may not lobby court official in any matter that is before the courts. A petition cannot lobby jurors or make any comment about them. A petition should not, as a general rule, lobby state or federal prosecutors or judges.

N. Petitions must not show contempt of any court or judge in any jurisdiction. Petitions must not disparage any judge, DA, lawyer, barrister or legal official regardless of whether such allegations may be true or not.

O. Petition authors may not use bots or automated scripts to upload signatures or other data to the GoPetition server, unless express permission is supplied by GoPetition. A breach of this term may result in a petition or account being disabled or closed.

P. Hold GoPetition liable in relation to third party search engine activity. Listings of GoPetition content by search engines are possible because GoPetition has a general data transparency policy. To balance this policy, GoPetition has a rigorous Privacy Policy which enables data control and data protection. Urgent requests to search engines for content removal can be made by users to those search engines through the various request channels of those search engines.

Q. In the interests of signers and site moderators, authors shall not engage in excessive editing of their petitions. Signers' trust in the information that signers have endorsed must be respected. In this respect, each petition author agrees not to change the substance of their petition(s). Authors agree not to change the essential meaning of their petition(s) so that fairness is displayed to all signers. Any editorial changes to petitions must only be of a grammatical, stylistic or non-substantive basis. If substantial changes are needed for any petition, we encourage the relevant petition author to start a fresh petition which can then be promoted to signers of previous versions for approval.

(2). Regarding a Member's email address:

A. A Member's email address will never be displayed publicly by GoPetition. GoPetition has a strict privacy policy that can be viewed on this website.

B. Members will normally receive email alerts regarding mail sent to their GoPetition mailbox. This alert feature may be switched off at any time by a member.

C. Members may receive periodic emails from GoPetition which relate to site functions.

(3) Members agree that if a petition is closed it will be publicly archived for signers to see the results. A closed version of all petitions will remain live on the site. Archived petitions allow for data access by signers and targets. Authors may submit a request for removal of a petition, subject to an administrative fee. 

(4). License and copyright: By posting petitions and other communications, User/Member grants to GoPetition a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable nonexclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, moderate, publish, translate, distribute, perform and display those communications, inclusive of signatures, alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed and sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of licensees. GoPetition reserves any and all intellectual property rights, copyright (if any) or otherwise, attached to the publication of petitions, authored by members, on the GoPetition website. Publication of a petition at GoPetition does not automatically confer copyright to the owner. Copyright of a petition text, if required, should be stated specifically in the petition where copyright is required.

(5). Indemnity: Every User/Member agrees to hold harmless GoPetition and its officers and directors from any and all claims, actions or demands, resulting from User/Member material or personal information posted to any facilities provided by GoPetition. Listings of GoPetition content by search engines such as Google are the responsibility of those engines as GoPetition has a general data transparency policy. GoPetition, however, allows and encourages Members to control their own data. GoPetition seeks to balance the interests of data transparency, data control, Privacy, data access and search engine exposure for the benefit of our members and the general public. GoPetition's Privacy Policy forms part of this TOU.

(6). Users and Members are subject to the GoPetition Disclaimer. The Disclaimer forms part of these Terms.  The GoPetition Privacy Policy is also subject to the Disclaimer and TOU.

(7). GoPetition at its absolute discretion may release member or signer contact and other identifying details to third parties without notice or reasons to the member or signer. This clause would be occasionally invoked, for example, when GoPetition forms an opinion that the release of such information would be fair or equitable or may help in a legitimate legal investigation, criminal or civil.

(8). Construction: Nothing in the Terms and Conditions shall be construed as reducing or limiting GoPetition's rights or interests as set forth in the Disclaimer, or as expanding GoPetition's duties, obligations or liabilities beyond those provided for in the Terms and Conditions.

(9). GoPetition reserves the right to amend or change these terms of service so as to improve the services of GoPetition.

(10). While the services of GoPetition are generally free, we reserve the right to place a sponsor's advertisement on the same page as a Member's petition. We also reserve the right to post a sponsor's url on a Member's petition. GoPetition also offers premium services on a non-refundable fee basis.

(11) GoPetition may charge for premium services, on a non-refundable basis, which may vary from time to time according to GoPetition's discretion, use of server resources by a particular feature, and/or service availability. Premium services accounts with petitions that have massive signature counts may attract additional charges due to extra loads on server resources.

(12). GoPetition has the right to moderate site content so that GoPetition's Terms are complied with. Due to the magnitude of content on the site, GoPetition does not warrant that all content is actively moderated. GoPetition does not warrant that its moderation of content complies with the laws of relevant jurisdictions. GoPetition has the right to remove any site content, including petitions and forums, without notice or reasons. Any content removal shall be at GoPetition's absolute discretion. Petition or content removal may attract a small administrative charge.

(13). GoPetition does not necessarily endorse any website or advertiser displayed on the site. Ads served by a Google robot are not selected by GoPetition.

(14). The terms herein shall be governed by the protections afforded by the Supreme Court of California to blog sites against claims for libel or copyright infringement. This website is not liable for any such infringements in relation to materials uploaded by members. Redress against member content lies with direct claims against members/authors, not this website.

(15). GoPetition is a premium content Website. GoPetition agrees to supply a moderated premium content site that displays and enhances petitions of local, national and international significance for the betterment of our members' interests.